Cinema Burkina

So what does a bachelor of 23 do on the weekends in a village with no bars, let alone beer, no video games, let alone electricity, and no woman, at least none that are not married or one of his students?

This is a great question; the answer to which at least to me is at the same time amazing and depressing. At the very least it makes me smile. 

What I hope will be an enlightening introduction is in order. I hope that through this introduction, I can bridge the gap between African village life and America.

To you I present the Guru. 

The Guru is bottom-right.

The Guru is the senior of the six teachers at my school. He teaches French, History and Geography masterfully juggling more classes and students than any of his colleagues. The Guru is at the same time the shortest and heaviest among us teachers. This feat, bringing shame in the states, earns him instant respect. In Africa, a stomach well fed belongs to a person who knows how to look out for his own. A bulging waist-line is the African equivalent to driving a Beamer or sporting a Rolex, yet much more indicative of the owners actual well-being. A person will fed in Africa is probably the happiest and most content. While in the States, the man behind the Benz may very well be the saddest of the bunch. 

The Guru is a widely known as a man who does life well. His reputation is not in small part due to the four solar panels gleaming deep blue perched in his courtyard. With these solar panels, he has lights to see inside and out, a boom box to blare music day and night, and a fan to keep him cool while the rest of us swim and sleep in our own sweat. His most prized contraption, and most beneficial to others, is his home entertainment system. 

Each and every night preceding a day without school, which has been numerous lately considering the student strike, he hauls outside his battery and clamps together wires connecting a DVD player, TV and speakers. With one push of a button, poof, like magic, shining blaring into the dark African wilderness is modern cinema.

This is what I do on Friday nights. I huddle around a small TV in the company of my fellow teachers. To take a break from the likes of Steven Segal, Chuck Norris, and Jean Claude Vandam, all of which the Burkinabe consider gods, I tilt my head skyward.  Often, the only think better than Cinema Burkina is Cinéma des étoiles – cinema of the stars.